Darlene's Digest

Your Virtual Book Bag BAD BOYS AHOY! BAD BOYS AHOY! by Sylvia Day Kensington Brava ISBN: 0-7582-1251-8 Trade Paperback Oh, those naughty rakes. With their wicked winks, sensual smiles, and bad boy habits, you just can’t take them out in polite society. But who wants to go out when you can stay in…? STOLEN PLEASURES Sebastian Blake, Earl of Merrick, long ago fled the responsibilities of his title to become the infamous pirate, Captain Phoenix. But the booty he’s just captured on a merchant ship is a fierce tempered minx who claims to be a bride…his bride, married to him by proxy on behest of their fathers. He could shame his hated family and return his beautiful wife untouched, but no treasure has ever proved more tempting to Sebastian, and making their marriage a true one—in every sense—is his one urgent desire … LUCIEN’S GAMBLE Lucien Remington’s reputation as a debauched libertine who plays by no one’s rules—in business or the bedroom—is well de...

The program at the Alachua County Library went well this evening. The crowd was interested in the topic, early 19th C. Florida and pirates, and books were signed. As usual, bringing a pirate chest filled with chocolate coins helped attract people over to the books table. I read more than I planned to from Captain Sinister's Lady , but it was my first public outing with this particular book and I was pleased for the opportunity to share. I'll be more pleased when the book's on sale in March.

Just because I sometimes like to say "Eat your hearts out, you damnyankees!", here's what I'm looking at right now while I'm sitting on my back porch, laptop in my lap. And the current temperature is 77F

I'm speaking at the Alachua County Library on January 25th, and I need to spend this week reviewing some of my pirate and privateering research. When I started writing Pirate's Price many years ago I didn't intend to make a career of telling pirate tales, but sometimes it just works out that way. I even remember the first two research books I bought used when I had a germ of a story running through my head-- Basic Sailing and Pirates, An Illustrated History by David Mitchell. Since then my piratical and nautical bookshelf has blossomed with volumes--it helps when you can write off some of your book purchases as business expenses--and one of the reasons I stuck with the pirates and nautical themes was because there's so much good reading out there. When I was writing Pirate's Price I found a small reference to the "West Indies Anti-Piracy Campaign" and it was so cool I just knew I had to follow up on that. I did, and ended up with Captain Sinister's...

I got word yesterday from my editor that Captain Sinister's Lady is next in her queue for edits. I don't know if it makes me odder than some other authors, but I like being edited. I've been fortunate that most of my editors have been the kind of people you want to read over your work, professionals who can spot flaws you can't see and help you fix them. I'm willing to go to the mats on something I believe must stay in the book, but I'm also willing to "kill my darlings" when necessary. I had a friend over for supper last night, a traveling tech mavin who works for a hotel chain setting up their software and networking. When he's in town I try to offer a meal at home, since I figure he gets enough road food in his life. We're both SF fans and we were talking about an extremely popular modern SF author, someone whose work I used to enjoy. I say "used to", because in the last few novels the exposition has been so unwieldy that I just ...

I uninstalled the free antivirus program I'd been using and installed avast! today. I was moved to make the switch by articles I read saying the program I'd been using missed a large number of viruses in the recent Windows scare, while avast! only missed one. And how could I resist a virus protection program with so piratical a motif?

And from Your Virtual Book Bag... CHERRY ON TOP November 2005 ISBN 0-8217-7849-8 Cherry Harte is ready to set the world on fire—figuratively, of course. Unfortunately, people tend to underestimate a girl whose insane family attracts loan sharks and bail bondsmen the way some people attract money. So when Cherry wins the lottery, it’s see ya later, New Jersey; hello, Mystic Beach, Florida. With her new villa, wardrobe, and personal history, Cherry is this close to totally reinventing her life. The only thing that can stop her now is a man who doesn’t fit—a hunky mechanic who kicks her libido from zero to sixty in no time flat… Luke Chance is allergic to cherries—literally. He also avoids women with money, especially new money. But Cherry Harte is fun, different, and super-sexy. But is she on the lam? The woman’s hiding something , and he intends to find out what. Chance is a man on a mission…call it love. Reviews “Likable characters and story, in a style that read...

My contract with LTDBooks expired on December 31, and LTDBooks is no more. The good news is that my new publisher, Amber Quill Press , will be releasing Captain Sinister's Lady in March, 2006 and then bringing my previous books, Pirate's Price and Smuggler's Bride , back into print. In the meantime I'm working on a new novel and it's (finally!) beginning to pick up steam. I love it when my characters tell me what they're up to, and take some of the authorial guesswork out of the writing.

The new year started off on an interesting note. We attend an annual New Year's Day party hosted by some friends who know everybody . It's a great place to meet-and-greet, and the food would make you swoon. Your dieting resolutions begin on January 2 if you're on this guest list. I was introduced to a lady who began working on me to do a novel about North Florida fox hunting. I have never considered doing a novel around fox hunting--I leave that to Rita Mae Brown--but what really intrigued me is that people think fiction writers are dying for to be told about plot ideas and settings they think you ought to write about. I write historical novels about pirates and smugglers. Fox hunting was never even on the radar. I guess at one level it would be an interesting plot device, but as much as I appreciated her suggestions, there was this niggling thought in the back of my head that people who don't write think writers do plots on demand, or are out there looking for peop...

We started the holiday weekend by losing the use of the router on our home wireless system. It's amazing how little time it takes to begin going through withdrawal when you don't have Internet access. I ran over to the library with my laptop Friday afternoon to check my mail on their wireless system, and then Sunday I logged on to the one house computer connected to the cable modem. But it's not the same. My son went to the store and got the new router, which is a huge improvement because now I'll be able to take the laptop out onto the porch or the backyard and get online. This last part is a mixed blessing. While I like having a broader range on the signal, I'm concerned that the more I can get online the more I'll find excuses to do stuff like update my Digest instead of what I really should be doing, confronting "the white screen of despair" (as opposed to "the blue screen of disaster") and doing some real writing on my WIP.